where the two cultures meet

Quark Dance

In the mysterious theory of particle physics, gluons are elementary particles that help exchange the strong forces between quarks. This is analogous to the electromagnetic forces generated by the exchange of photons between two charged particles.

Gluons participate in this strong interaction in addition to mediating it, unlike photons which mediate but lack an electric charge.

Recently, from the Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London, ballet choreographer Mark Baldwin visited the Large Hadron Collider at CERN and was inspired to recreate Triptych, a series of interactions between dancers.

The dances include the Strange Charm of Mother Nature – two duets showing magnetic attraction in slow motion, the dancers weaving and circling, hands not quite touching, as in gamma ray bursts in neutron stars. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto 3 guides the giddy changes and impulsive jumps by these grey-clad particles of kinetic energy.

It is believed that up to a few milliseconds after the Big Bang the Universe was in such a quark–gluon plasma state.